What you need to know about the Chicago Teachers Union strike

Teachers have been striking in front of the Chicago Public Schools headquarters and various school throughout the city for two days now over a new teacher evaluation system that would make students’ standardized test scores count for 40 percent of the evaluation. At ‘blame’ for the change in policy is Chicago mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has called the strike, “totally unnecessary.”

The video shows how outlandish the teachers’ raise requests are given that the average salary of a public school teacher is much higher than the average person living in Chicago (or anywhere else for that matter). According to reports on the issue, the mean salary of a teacher in Chicago is $71,200. However the Chicago Public Schools website suggests an even higher average salary amount of $74,839 for teachers.

The Romney campaign has taken Emanuel’s side in the strike. However, the Obama administration has tried to stay out of limelight, allowing the local government to handle the situation. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney merely stating that “Our principal concern is for the students and his principal concern is for the students and families who are affected by the situation and we hope that both sides are able to come together to settle this quickly and in the best interest of Chicago’s students.”

The city had agreed to six of the teachers’ 49 demands, but strikers say that’s not good enough. At the end of day two of the strike, the two sides don’t seem to be anywhere near reaching a deal.

“I hope that the parties will come together to settle this quickly and get our kids back in the classroom. I’m confident that both sides have the best interests of the students at heart, and that they can collaborate at the bargaining table – as teachers and school districts have done all over the country – to reach a solution that puts kids first.”

This mess is entirely the fault of Duh Gutterment sticking it’s nose where it has no Constitutional Authority to do so. Every dime spent on these lazy, greedy, good-for-nothings was acquired through armed theft – giving little to no incentive for the money to be spent wisely, since more money can always be stolen.
When a Private Business negotiates with a Private Sector Union, it’s their own money on the line – incentive, indeed, for careful negotiations. If the Private Business gives up too much to the Union, it can mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy.
Public Sector Unions are being wooed with stolen money, so that incentive to negotiate carefully is eliminated.

John Oliver, who once spurred his followers to crash the FCC’s website demanding net neutrality, is positively gleeful over the news that the agency has approved rules to regulate the internet like a public utility.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives pretty hilarious and biting interviews in real life — “not 100 percent sober” ringing any bells? — but Kate McKinnon’s version of the “Notorious RBG” on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” may just take the cake. From jokes about her morning exercise routine to her sexy dreams about […]

White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid appeals for bipartisanship, President Barack Obama in just three days has provoked Republicans on issues as disparate as immigration, Wall Street and the Keystone XL pipeline — a combative mix of defense and offense that underscores Washington's political realignment.

Defying the Republican-run Congress, President Barack Obama rejected a bill Tuesday to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, wielding his veto power for only the third time in his presidency.

You know it’s bad when President Obama has even lost the support of MSNBC. MSNBC Host Andrea Mitchell basically called the White House’s Summit on “Countering Violent Extremism” a farce during her show Wednesday. “Here he has the summit, no heads of government coming, the participation has not been at a particularly high level. We’ll have […]

The president’s interview with Re/code over the weekend touched on privacy issues, with Obama insisting with “almost complete confidence” that there have been no abuses of the government’s vast surveillance program.

Congress

The student loan debt crisis is not just a growing problem among the American public, it’s growing among members of Congress as well. A grand total of 47 members of Congress reported a cumulative total of between $1.8 million and $4.6 million in student loan debt in 2013, as calculated by OpenSecrets based on personal […]

After a week that saw Republican infighting leading to a dramatic near-shutdown situation for the Department of Homeland Security, House Speaker John Boehner was questioned on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about his leadership. Boehner downplayed the divisions and said that it wasn’t the big picture that they disagreed on, but rather how to accomplish it. […]

Democrats really jumped the gun on this one. It seems that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was in such a hurry to fundraise over their hatred for Republicans this weekend that they were willing to spread a little misinformation to do so. The DCCC emailed supporters Saturday morning incorrectly saying that Republicans had allowed the Department of […]